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Published: January 16th 2008
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Our travel buddies
Nick and his ladies! Eliza left, Lucy right. With our tour over, its quite amazing to look back and think about all thats happened since we left nearly two weeks ago! So much has happened, the dramas have certainly continued courtesy of lizzie, we have made great friends, and done incredible things. Its still early days, India is up next!
New Year turned into a great night in Ho Chi Minh. After not having much of a clue what to do, the city cetainly turned on a spectacular show. Every street corner, park, restaurant- basically any space was set up to welcome in 2008. Many drinks were consumed at various backpackers bars around the city with the Americans we met, as well as another couple from Geelong. We then moved down to a street party which was held down the road from the place we were staying. The Vietnamese LOVE western music, with a particular penchant for Western pop. So there we found ourselves on top of a random resturants balcony, drinking blue banana cocktails and one dollar beers watching this jam-packed concert in awe...How did they catch onto the whole S Club 7 fascination so horribly late!? Moving down to the dance party below afterwards, we were
New Years Eve
I hope this photo shows the craziness of New Years and the roads. This road is only a two lane street, however the Vietnamese can fit 8 motorcycles each lane. Which means hundreds of people driving past each minute. Ho Chi Minh, New Years Eve forced to accept the mind-boggling dance mix of We Will Rock You and Jump Around played on repeat by a rather cocky DJ....When in Rome.
We joined our tour the next day and the group is a serious mix! (an exotic dancer, a hard-core vegan, a newly engaged couple from England, a New Zealand electrician....did someone say Big Brother??) We met two fantastic girls our age from Sydney who have become our firm allies, yet our reputation for being the late and hopeless ones was certainly cemented early. We are always late for EVERYTHING! Though, Nick only worked out the other day that he turned the alarm clock back instead of foward. Yep, we are the definition of hopeless, but god help us, we are certainly getting better, except for a little incident yesterday where Lizzie may have left her hot pink ATM card in the machine in Hue....how its possible, we will never know...
We won't bore you with all the details of the tour, but here are some highlights...
Eliza and Lucy, these two little lassies from Sydney really are our clones and have become great mates. When we are not practicing our Vietnamese on
Ho Chi Minh backstreets
Lizzie thought this was a very artistic photo capturing the Vietnamese flag with a backdrop of the cities backstreets. a poor shop keeper (we know one word very well and have used it frequently when attempting to cross the roads!! - "oi choi oi" : oh my god!) We seem to always end up losing track of time, playing card game after card game, and consuming copious amonts of food and drink, in a random little bar somewhere in the city we are staying. A ten hour train ride in a four person soft sleeper ended up resembling a slumber party....food everywhere, celebrity heads, and angry tour members banging on the wall to get us all to be quiet. It's been very sad to see them go.
We have been on some fantastic day trips during this tour. One boat ride took us out to the beautiful Mekong Delta, where stopping for lunch on one of the four surrounding islands, we all had the opportunity to hold a MASSSIVE python. Lizzie nearly vomited at the thought, but Nick being the big, strong man he is took to the opportunity with gusto. Very impressive.
Another boat trip in the stunning Nha Trang saw us snorkling in emerald warm waters off these amazing little islands. Unfortunately the weather was
Cyclo Tour!
Photo of our group cyclo tour of Ho Chi. Nick is first with the man in the blue hat, then Eliza and Lucy bringing up the rear. overcast, but the water was so clear and warm. We can't wait for Goa and Thailand in the coming weeks.
I'd (nick) just like to add here, whilst boarding the old wooden put-put boat, Lizzie thought this to be an opportune moment to remind the entire group of a local Australian soap called Tripping Over. In particular, a scene in Thailand. For those of you who don't know this scene, it shows a boat similar to our exploding mid-trip. Thankfully life didn't immitate art on this occasion, however the boat trip was slightly less peaceful. Our favourite place so far is a gorgeous little town called Hoi An. Here you can seriously shop till you drop. Clothes can be tailor made, with lizzie and the girls getting dresses, jackets, you name it, all made in just over a day! Hoi An is an old trading city, so it's set around a gorgeous little bay. The achitecture of the buildings throughout the town is stunning, with the french influence very apparent. Open air markets merge from the river bank onto the sandy streets, where hundreds of little shops selling crafts, clothes and silver jewellry sit. Everyone gets around on
Tarzan Nick
Nick showing his manliness, tackling the man-killing python. Pheonix Island, Mekong Delta. either foot, bicycle, or motorbike - very European. Days were spent mostly bike riding around to the different shops and restaurants where we ate some of the best food of our trip so far. Lizzie may have consumed 12 cold rolls in one sitting....they were that good! Nick also took the plunge on the last day and hired a motorbike. After a nervous couple of laps around the town and some serious traffic dodging, (the trick is learning when to toot your horn, and the more toots the better!!) Lizzie hopped on the back and off we cruised to the beach and through the surrounding villages. A perfect afternoon. We also went to a traditional Vietnamese cooking class in which we picked up a few handy hints to bring back home, and visited an orphanage for disabled and homeless children and bought food and toys. The orphanage was an unforgettable experience and one we are both very glad we had. Children in this orphange had disabilities ranging from slight to severe as a result of Agent Orange - a poison used in the Vietnam War. The deformities Agent Orange have inflicted on these poor children, and generations before them is
Mekong
A tributary of the Mekong river, travelling in a long boat. horrendous. To see all of these children with appalling disabilities was terribly sad. The vision of one child in particular, who would have only been about 10 months old, will stay with us forever. This little baby was completely immobile, hardly concious and his poor head was the size of a watermellon. It was truly heartbreaking.
After Hoi An we stopped off in Hue for a two nights where we took part in a very entertaining traditional Vietnamese Royal Banquet dinner - complete with costumes and traditional music!! After Hue we travelled to Halong Bay, where we spent a lazy afternoon on a gorgeous wooden boat crusing through the spectacular limestone formations and swimming in the beautifully warm waters. Halong Bay is one of the most remarkable places on earth, with large island mountains rising out of the sea, spanning hundreds of kilometres. In Halong Bay there was also a spectacular cave, aptly name Suprising Cave, which was a gigantic ancient cave with huge limestone stalictite and stalimite formations created over millions of years.
The tour ended in Hanoi, a lovely old city with influences from France not only in architecture and cuisine, but also in French manner
Overnight Train trips
Although not the most comfortable of environments, we made the most of it with many sessions of Uno, May I and Celebrity Heads. and arrogance, with some not so friendly run-in's with the locals. This did not spoil our time however, specifically sighting the gigantic turtle that inhabits the lake in the middle of Hanoi. The turtle is concidered a mythical and magical creature in Vietnam, due to its long lifespan, so as our local guide was explaining that the turtle often rises during special occasions for Vietnam, Nick spotted the turtles large head rising from the Hoan Kiem Lake. We then realised that this was a special occasion for Vietnam, as Lizzie and Nick were gracing the country with their presence.
Perhaps we have been in Hanoi a little too long as it seems the Frence arrogance is rubbing onto us as well!! The tour culminated with a great dinner and some serious partying at a club called Funky Monkey - we were two very sorry sights yesterday! We have one more day in Hanoi and we then fly out to Delhi were all the fun continues!!
Promise to keep in touch more regularly.
Love to everyone,
Lizzie and Nick x
Ps- sorry for the gaps in photography, but the Cannon was out of action for a
Nha Trang
The emerald waters of Nha Trang small period due to sand damage at a bar in Nha Trang. But now she is back and firing!
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Louise Hill
non-member comment
Tomato tin voices
Great stories, but now its clear why your voice sounded like you were talking in a tomato tin.... its all the partying you're doing. Oi Choi Oi, Keep it up!